The Milken Institute opened its two-day MENA-focused summit in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday featuring a host of local and international speakers, from health chiefs to philanthropists as they discuss regional challenges.In its second year, the summit is focusing on youth unemployment, environment sustainability, and the refugee crises.The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think-tank mandated to increase global prosperity by advancing collaborative solutions that widen access to capital, ...

In the main square in the northern Iraqi town of Bartella stands a large cross, one of the few overt signs the town was historically Christian. Nearby, a massive billboard shows Shiite Muslim martyrs alongside a photo of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. Posters of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen killed in fighting with ISIS hang on streets all around the city, along with banners to revered historical Shiite saints. Thirty years ago, Bartella’s population was entirely Christian. ...

Qatari media tiptoed around covering the role of former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim in their reporting of the Barclays scandal, where four former Barclays Bank executives were charged with conspiring to commit fraud by hiding £322 million of payments to Qatar in return for cash injections in 2008. Qatar Holding, part of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and Challenger, the gulf state’s former Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim’s private investment company, had invested more ...

Pakistan, long at odds with the United States over the war in Afghanistan, has begun to play a behind-the-scenes but central role in supporting US peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, including by facilitating travel to negotiations, US officials and Taliban sources told Reuters. The Pakistani assistance, which has not been reported in such detail before, also includes exerting pressure on Taliban leaders who fail to cooperate, including by detaining members of the militants’ families, the ...

The Red Cross called Friday for a total ban on nuclear weapons, warning of the growing risk that such arms could again be used with devastating effect. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched a global campaign to raise awareness about the rising nuclear threat facing the world. In a joint statement, they said some nuclear-armed states were straying from their “long-standing nuclear ...

They were born after their parents’ protests brought down the Shah of Iran in 1979, when enthusiasm gave way to the hard years of US-led isolation and a bloody, eight-year war with Iraq. Iran’s “revolution babies” are a major force in the country today, in the wake of the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the creation of the Islamic Republic, now marking its 40th anniversary. More than half of Iran’s 80 million people are under 35, and all of them deal ...

The faculty of postgraduate studies and scientific research at Sanaa University invited students to attend a weekly lecture to analyze the speeches of the “leader of Quranic march,” Abdulmalik al-Houthi, according to a poster that promotes the event. The Quranic march refers to the lectures explaining some verses of the Quran according to the Houthi understanding. It was started in 2002 by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. The weekly lectures will be held every Wednesday at 12:00 pm. The ...

Egypt’s Higher Committee to Counter Sectarian Violence was formed on December 30, 2018. The committee, headed by the president’s advisor on security and counter-terrorism affairs, includes members from the military, military intelligence, central intelligence, national security, and the Administrative Control Authority. According to law 602/2018, representatives of other relevant entities can take part in the committee’s work depending on the nature of the issues tackled. The ...

Women who lived under the harsh rule of the Taliban urged senior Afghan politicians to ensure their hard-won freedoms are not bargained away when they talk peace with the insurgents on Tuesday. The Afghan Women’s Network said their rights should not be used as a “political tool” in dealings with the Taliban, who barred women from schools and jobs and drastically curtailed their personal liberties when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Their appeal comes as the Taliban ...

On a cool Tuesday morning in Abu Dhabi, hundreds of thousands of people from far and wide flocked towards Zayed Sports City to attend Pope Francis’s much anticipated Mass- the first to be held in the Arabian Peninsula. A choir sang hymns as families excitedly hurried to the stadium’s entrance to take their seats. One Mass-goer, Christine from the Philippines, limped her way through the crowds at about 7:00 am using crutches. “It’s worth it, to be in the presence of the ...